CH2M Hill, the Douglas County-based engineering and construction company, has been picked to manage a $5.25 billion project to widen and deepen the Panama Canal.

"We're thrilled. This is the Panama Canal. People have been reading about this in history books for 100 years," CH2M Hill executive Garry Higdem said Friday in a telephone interview.

The effort to build new locks on both the Atlantic and Pacific ends and to excavate and dredge will take seven years. The Panama Canal Authority hopes to allow the first "Post Panamax" ship - a vessel that does not fit in the original canal - to pass through the expanded canal in August 2014, the 100th anniversary.

As program manager, CH2M Hill will help the authority handle all contracts and work with design and construction teams.

For CH2M Hill, this is one of its highest-profile projects, along with the 2012 Olympic Games in London, Higdem said. CH2M Hill last year was selected to be part of a three-member team overseeing the planning and construction of sports venues for the Olympics.

Subcontractors on the team include DHV Group, Grupo TYPSA, CSA Group and Earth Consultants International.

The canal authority said it began reviewing three bids from CH2M Hill, Parsons Brinkerhoff and URS Holdings in mid-July, and "the winning proposal was selected based on the best value and not the lowest price."

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